Extreme Examples of "Sink-or-Swim" Parenting

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Apr 24, 2021 12:00 PM EDT

Most every parent wants to teach their kid to be self sufficient, but there's a lot of disagreement on how to get there. Some parents opt for the "tell my child to tie their shoes without telling them how" approach and needless to say, there are mixed results. Making your kid try something and fail at it is a way to make them learn, but most parents would agree it's usually better to set them up with situations where failure doesn't mean death. Traumatizing your kids may come to bite you in the end when it comes to the dumbest things people had to convince their parents not to do.

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  • 01
    Font - myuniquenameonreddit 2 days ago edited 2 days ago a S Not my story, but my mom's. She developed a phobia after she was thrown into a pool to learn how to swim. At the age of 70, she still doesn't know how to. She's terrified of being on the water, even in a safety vest. And then, some fake clairvoyant told her she would die by drowning. So we spent our summers in the mountains as far away from being on water.
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  • 02
    Font - AlwaysWantsIceCream 2 days ago I was volunteering at a parent-child zoo day, and saw a few parents like this. The zoo had some free roaming peacocks, and it was awful how many parents just didn't tell their too-young-to-know kids that they can be mean. So the little toddler goes, "wow, pretty bird" and tries to get a closer look, only to get chased and attacked by this thing while the parents watch. Most of them said something like "you should have known better"; like, HOW if you never te
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  • 03
    Font - Leopard-Expert 2 days ago My Dad taught me how to drive a manual transmission car in the following way. (I was 16 and just learned how to drive an automatic transmission car). 1. He drove the manual transmission car out to a deserted road. 2. He told me to drive the automatic transmission car out there to meet him. 3. He showed me what the clutch was and what the gears were in the manual transmission car. 4. He wished me good luck, and drove the automatic transmission car home. This was b
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  • 04
    Rectangle - doubledang666 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago + 2 3 27 & 24 More 2 days after I graduated high school I came home to an empty house, all my stuff in a Uhaul because my mom and stepdad moved without me. I have been financially independent ever since, but a heads up would've been nice.
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  • 05
    Rectangle - lookssharp 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago 3 My step dad would get hammered and make me drive him home. I was 14 and couldn't drive stick and he was like you'll figure it out. This happened Maybe 3 times.
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  • 06
    Font - rundy_emcee 2 days ago 3 e4 S When I was around 11 or 12, two kids from the neighborhood got into a street fight. Kid #1 clearly got the best of kid #2, and kid #2 was crying and went home. Should have been end of story. Kid #2's parents met him at his front door and sent him back out there to continue to fight. I'm not sure if it was about honor or what, but it was painful to watch.
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  • 07
    Font - torneen 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago A & 111 More I actually used to be a swim teacher in college teaching private lessons in people's backyards 3 because of parents who had thrown their kids into the pool to sink or swim. It was usually Mom's calling me for help because they heard from a friend of a friend that I was able to teach their kid and get them to like the water again in about a month or less. One kid, he was 7, I had to sit with him on the pool deck the whole first lesson and
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  • 08
    Font - He had no idea I had been there three days a week for a month. My favorite student was a 70 year old man who wanted to do a triathlon but never learned to swim because his Dad threw him in as a child. It took about 3 months total, a lot of hand holding on the steps and shallow end, but he finally achieved his goal and I got to cheer him on at the finish line. I still remember how each of my students clung to my arms and clawed at my neck in their first lessons. I never dunked or forced an
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  • 09
    Font - Roli_Rules 3 days ago they didn't want to teach me to tie my shoes, because my mum said "I had to learn that myself, so should you!"
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  • 10
    Font - Rubricae98 3 days ago · edited 2 days ago 2 S 'Just walk it off!" My dad, when I developed a big nasty cyst on my toe when my mom was away on a stressful trip. She was not pleased to come back and have to immediately drive me to the hospital. It got to the point where I took one step on it and almost passed out. He apologized afterward. Got a sandwich from a really good sandwich place and I forgave him. Now I laugh about it.
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  • 11
    Font - MinouCheetos 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago O 2 24 & 20 More 7 years old. Had an asthma attack at our camp in the middle of the night. At that time, treatment for an attack was a nebulizer machine that required electricity, which we didn't have at our camp. My parents kept telling me that I just had to calm down and breathe better so the attack would go away on its own. They only intervened hours later because they couldn't sleep because of all the noise I was making as I choked and gaspe
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  • 12
    Font - CosmonautCaveman 2 days ago I was always a picky eater growing up. One time my mom sat me down with a small bowl of almonds and told me I couldn't get up out of my seat until I finished it. I insisted that I hated them and they were making my mouth itch, she thought I was just being difficult. I just started to swallow the almonds like pills because my mouth was so itchy from chewing on them. A couple years later I saw and allergist and discovered I was allergic to tree nuts.
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  • 13
    Font - cleaning-meaning 3 days ago 2 6 When I was 10 my parents had my siblings. Twins baby girls. Within 2 weeks I was babysitting them 12+ hours a day, at least 5 days a week. Not only that. Since I was already babysitting my Aunt dropped of her 1 and 2 year old too. So I, who had no prior experience babysitting or caring for kids. Was now babysitting 4 kids under 3. What a literal s' t show that was.
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  • 14
    Font - VKH700 3 days ago 2 My older sister taught me how to ride a bicycle by putting me on the seat of a full- size bike at the top of our downward sloping driveway and giving me a good push, sending me flying down the driveway and jettisoning me into the street. I got the hang of it pretty quickly.
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  • 15
    Font - visviva1 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago My stepmom walked us (me, sister, brother 10-12) deep into the woods and left us there to learn 'survival skills'. We thought we were all out on a hike then she distracted us, and ran away. We wandered into camp hours later; we knew how to get back but searched for hours worried that something had happened to her. She was drinking margaritas and smirking.
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  • 16
    Font - Shishi432234 2 days ago O 2 e 3 2 Every time I asked my parents to explain something as a kid I was told either "You're smart; you'll figure it out." or "You just don't want to do it!" Any attempt at maturity was met with either flat out laughter or being told that I was too young to worry about that. Cue me turning 18, and suddenly I'm expected to be an adult, get a job, pay taxes, and all that jazz. I asked where in the hell do I start, and they got pissy because I apparently hadn't fig
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  • 17
    Font - hyperrrwolf 3 days ago 2 my dad wanted to teach me how to sail when i was 11. i was terrified of the ocean but i wanted to spend the day with him so it didn't matter much to me. i was on the sailboat, waiting for him to join me when i suddenly felt the boat drifting away from shore. he had untied the boat and was pushing it into the ocean. i was alone, not knowing how to sail and completely panicked. it was getting dark by the time i returned home. the worst part wasn't being stranded in
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  • 18
    Font - AMerrickanGirl 3 days ago · edited 2 days ago At age four my father decided that my sister and I should learn to tie our shoes. He made us stand there for hours trying to do it, crying. We just weren't quite old enough.
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  • 19
    Font - Callil6 3 days ago 2 S My parents telling me my whole life that they would pay for my university, and then when I actually moved out and started university they said "never mind, figure it out on your own" 7.2k Reply Share ... EnvironmentalBigFan 3 days ago When I was discussing colleges to apply to my mom would always tell me not to worry about tuition, which at first I took to mean she was going to pay for it, but luckily my brother clarified that she in no way could afford that and lit
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  • 20
    Font - deanLFC123 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago 2 S Hurt my arm playing football during morning break at school, was sent home by the school nurse. My dad said it was fine. bandaged it and sent me to school the next day only for them to send me home again within an hour. My mum made my dad take me to hospital and my arm was broken. (my wrist had spilt lengthways, it was in casts for 9 months) I was secretly buzzing to be honest because, wellI, that showed him the knob.
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